Can you out-sprint a bad diet?
Sprinters lose body fat on all fast-food diet
You Can’t Out Run a Bad Diet…but You Can Out-SPRINT It?
An interesting study for 3 weeks had men consume a 3500 calorie a day diet of fast food only. The kicker is they also had to do a sprint workout every single morning (A).
The workout was 15 sets of 60 second sprints at 90% Max paired with 60 seconds of active recovery (walking) in between sets. As someone who sprints and plays sports ~this is not an easy workout. However, all in all it only took about 30 minutes.
This is is an exciting study showing the battles of two opposing things. For one, fast food has a horrible wrap and even some studies point to the idea that the more fast food restaurants there are in a country the higher the rate of obesity will be (B). Secondly, people know that exercising is good for you, but generally they say you "can't out-run a bad diet".
The results of the study were quite remarkable. The participants had a slight decrease in body fat, a slight increase in muscle and also go in better shape (an increase in VO2 max). Just to remind you.. these people were eating a 3500 calorie fast-food only diet! The positive changes in body composition were small but all you can say is..
“you can out-sprint a poor quality diet, at least in the short-term.”
For one, people will try and blame certain foods such as fast food, Pizza or ice cream for gaining weight but in reality, the situation is much more dynamic. When we move (and move intensely) before eating it changes the path of where this food goes. Exercise makes food more likely to be used to accrete lean body mass or re-fill muscle glycogen stores. One important note of the study is the participants were young males and were “able to sprint”. Further, based on their total activity expenditure, they definitely also did a good deal of spontaneous movement outside of the sprint workout. This makes sense, if you have a young, active lean male, on an all fast food diet, they might be driven to “move more” outside of the workout to neutralize the extra intake. So it’s not just the sprints that offset the poor, higher-calorie diet, but movement beyond the workout. The workout only burned 500 calories, but someone got up to 1500 calories in activity expenditure per day (for a total expenditure of 3500, when you include baseline metabolism and the thermic effect of food). So if you’re going to eat a poor quality diet, you need to sprint and ALSO move spontaneously throughout the day to offset it. Dance floor anyone?
Intense movement before eating up-regulates our ability to use Carbs and Fats as fuel. Essentially, sprinting can “channel even a poor quality meal to the right places, at least in the short-term”.
The real reason why I am sharing this study:
You know I’m a proponent of eating real food primarily (with an emphasis on protein-rich foods). However, we aren’t perfect and life sometimes involves things such as pizza, ice cream or maybe even some fast-food fries on occasion. The one rule we all should implement is this:
If diet quality is going to be low, you should sprint beforehand (and ALSO increase spontaneous movement at the social function >> rip up the dance floor, play some pool, darts or bowl, go for a walk, find a way to move that you find fun. Then hop back on your normal real food diet the next day. We know that in the short-term the negative side effects of poor dietary choices can be negated by sprinting.
This is also why we usually see athletes get away with hitting up the buffet (along with some drinks) after sports games. Playing a sport is like doing a really intense sprint workout. So if you don’t want to do a formal sprint workout (such as 15 sets of 60 seconds), play your favorite sport for an hour or two. This will allow you to get away with your Saturday night on the town guilt-free (and potentially with zero fat gain)
Cheers and don’t forget to sprint/sport before you divulge
and ALSO rip up the dance floor..
John
References
(A) Duval, Christian, et al. "High Intensity Exercise: Can It Protect You from A Fast Food Diet?." Nutrients 9.9 (2017): 943.
(B) Alheritiere, A., et al. "Worldwide relation between the number of McDonald's restaurants and the prevalence of obesity." Journal of internal medicine 274.6 (2013): 610-611.